Deadly obsession

Hollywood star Julianne Moore plays a widow terrorised by a fanatical stalker in Stephen King’s psychological horror

- SEAN MARLAND

Stephen King has written a host of bestselling novels during his illustrious career, but none is closer to his heart than a story inspired by a near-death experience he suffered in 1999.

The iconic horror author was seriously injured when he was hit by a van while walking near his home in New England, and as he recovered in hospital, his wife, Tabitha, decided to redesign his writing studio. When King returned home to see his things packed up in boxes, he had a vision of life after his own death, and the incident proved the genesis for Lisey’s Story, a dark tale about the widow of a wildly successful writer.

This week, King brings his book to the screen in a spine-tingling eight-part series on Apple TV+ starring Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, beginning with a double bill followed by weekly episodes.

Moore plays widowed Lisey, who is still mourning the death of her novelist husband Scott (Clive Owen) two years earlier. As she clears out his office, Lisey is approached by his ex-colleague Professor Dashmiel (Ron Cephas Jones), who asks for Scott’s valuable unpublished manuscripts.

It’s a request that opens the door to her past and Lisey is forced to remember aspects of her marriage that she’d deliberately blocked out of her mind, in a tale that blends horror, romance and elements of the supernatural.